Active Living Resource Center

An RWJF Initiative

The Active Living Resource Center provides information, resources and technical assistance to help individuals, neighborhood groups and local partnerships create communities that promote physical activity. The resource center focuses on communities at highest risk of inactivity and childhood obesity, based on race/ethnicity, income and geographic location.

Its City-Safe Routes to School program helped 17 communities in nine cities develop Safe Routes to School programs. This work led to more focus nationally on Safe Routes to School in low-income communities.

Its Organizing for Regional Change project, to promote policies that support walking and bicycling, piloted the program in Alabama. This work spurred four cities to adopt Complete Streets policies, which call for designing all roads, except limited-access highways, for use by pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and people with disabilities, as well as drivers.

Key Results

A City-Safe Routes to School program, under which staff conducted workshops, helped 17 communities in nine cities develop Safe Routes to School programs. This work led to more focus nationally on Safe Routes to School in low-income communities.

The Organizing for Regional Change project, to promote policies that support walking and bicycling, piloted the program in Alabama. This work spurred four cities to adopt Complete Streets policies, which call for designing all roads, except limited-access highways, for use by pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and people with disabilities, as well as drivers.

The Emerging Leaders Project, a college internship program helped students in civil engineering, planning, traffic engineering, public health and public administration understand how improving the walking and bicycling infrastructure can transform a community.